NATO AIR CHIEF: For Russians, engaging an F-35 would be like jumping into a boxing ring to ‘fight an invisible Muhammad Ali’

An F-35B from Marine Fighter Attack Training Squadron 501 (VMFAT-501), flies near its base a MCAS Beaufort, South Carolina.

source

Lockheed Martin

NATIONAL HARBOR, Maryland – When asked how the F-35 Lightning II would stack up against potential aggression from Moscow, NATO air chiefs said they’re confident the fifth-generation jet would devalue Russian forces.

“What we are perfectly convinced of is the fact that when we do bring fifth-generation assets into the European region it is something that certainly serves as a deterrent,” Gen. Tod Wolters, commander of US Air Forces in Europe, told Business Insider.

“It forces the Russians to take a look at what we are doing and to realize that if they had to embrace us they might be in a position where they had to jump into a boxing ring and fight an invisible Muhammad Ali.”

“From our observations of their [Russian] activities in the area of command and control, they are extremely challenged. So our sense is, from a fifth generation standpoint that we would have great success,” Wolters said.

Luyt, whose country was the second international partner to receive Lockheed Martin’s “jack of all trades” fighter, highlighted the F-35’s asymmetric advantage over any other fielded jet.

caption

The F-35 flies above the famous windmills of Kinderdijk.

source

Photo courtesy the Netherlands Ministry of Defense

“The unparalleled situational awareness in a platform like the F-35 brings to the fight I think something that any opponent would regard as a force to be reckoned with,” Lt. Gen. Dennis Luyt, commander of the Royal Netherlands Air Force, told Business Insider.

Unlike any other fifth-generation jet, the F-35 can share what it sees in the battle space with counterparts, which creates a “family of systems.”

During his opening remarks at the AFA conference, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Goldfein called NATO’s air command “the strongest alliance on the planet.”